Writers & Ideas Festival in Carlow, IR

MY ALL TIME FAVORITE PART OF THE 72hrs CAN’T BELIEVE I GOT TO LISTEN TO, MEET AND TALK WITH PAULA MEEHAN!

Amazing session on intelligence with Russian experts and historians. Here is Margaret Macmillan and Fergal Keane from BBC

it was practically impossible to leave the bar where i was stationed so i carefully picked a session a day to go to. this was Eimear McBride and Karl Geary with Maz Porter. I got stuck at breakfast with Karl and learned that we both lived in Upstate NY then NYC at the same time. A lot to say the hate mail he gets and age as just a #

A truly magical castle weekend in Carlow working the Writers & Ideas Festival

I am deeply thankful for the staff and volunteers I got to team up with this past weekend. Thomas, Allison and Dominique you are forces of nature and reactive fires and problem solvers, a path to be crossed with. To the bar staff that rocked the crowd and poured draft beers and mixed drinks smooth and orchestrated like a play Aidan and Jonas we danced like devils---Sending more love then you probably wish to be doused with! The warmest thank you to Roseaana; you are a legend in my book and I will stop at nothing before I leave to spend time with you & your family again xx

I had the rare chance to sip on tea with Florence Welch and share stories on our ink after hearing her read her poetry and connect on the importance of trauma and feelings of internal gender identity. Got to stare into the eyes of Maajid Nawaz and given that i was the only 1 that knew how to pour a proper pint of stout i got to chat with him about his wife as we waited for it to settle. Spent 2am on with Andrew Maxwell and fest staff chatting about politics and scribbling. Took a minute to run up to Roddy Doyle and attempt to introduce myself in love with Two Pints and his mind.

I feel like a completely different women as I walk to the bus to work feeling the rain moisten my nose and not being able to decipher tears from mother nature's precipitation.

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Description

Rising bright with the morning sun at 4:30 am Friday June 9th to catch trains to get to remote part of Ir to work for legendary Ali from the Dublin Chocolate Factory & help at the Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas. According to the www it promises to be a weekend of stimulating dialogue and discourse, gathering together intriguing minds from all over the world and inviting them to spend a few days in the rural hinterland of County Carlow. Many are writers, but artists, filmmakers, political commentators, musicians, architects, and regular people who have experienced the extraordinary all grace the stage of Borris.

Car to bus to train to train to catch a 10am training by Hennessy; a main sponsor. It is getting a bit surreal here in the emerald isle now-----Roddy Doyle & Florence from F&Machine is going & will stop at nothing to talk poetry & prose. A swell opportunity to pick minds like apple orchards as i endeavor to better understand how the Irish celebrate & administer the arts.